Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cutting firewood by hand - buck or crosscut saw?

I use a two man crosscut saw and sharpen my own. They can be purchased new or at flee markets. I actually have one about 6' long that I believe dates to the late 1700's.... based on what I've seen at Colonial Williamsburg. It's an "M" tooth design so there are no raker teeth. This is what I recommend to you if you can find one.... because it's easier to maintain.

I did a demonstration at a historic park a few years ago with a few of my saws. I brought what I thought was enough 10-12" green oak logs to last 4 hours. Well it didn't, the passerbys and I had it cut up and split in 1.5 hours. The ancient M tooth worked the best.

You can still get crosscut saw files. You can use a regular vice and common lumber scraps to hold it. Research a file holder (mill file) for leveling the teeth before filing for sharp. These can be made from a scrap of hardwood also. Remember to deepen the gullet the same amount as you remove from the top. Many old saws suffer from this neglect. Set the teeth 1/3 to 1/2 the thickness of the blade. This can be done many different ways.

Remember to remove the second handle of the two man if you are cutting alone. Cut wood as green as you an get. Fill an old dish soap bottle with kerosene to squirt in the kerf if things get tight. Try to get the logs raised to a comfortable height. I use a three legged stand on each end. Use shims so the cut doesn't pinch the saw blade.

My general experience with traditional tools is that if it's "too hard" you are doing something wrong. IMHO, life for the most part was slower back in the day, not harder. I've worked my arse off with modern tools. PM me and I will help any way I can.

That is the way I feel. That is why we are cutting wood now when we have plenty to last both houses for the rest of the season.

If I had to do a years supply for the farm this Fall I would not be able to do it.

We used to own a 100 year old house in Montana, and we "supplemented" our heat with burning firewood. We averaged 10 cords a winter of beetle killed LPP, that I felled, limbed, blocked, and split almost solely by myself. It was work! And I rarely looked at the woodpile and thought, "That's enough for now."

Log piles grow, and log piles shrink, but 'finished' always refers to the shrink end of things IME.

Notice all the happy faces:

I don't remember why we got a late start that year, but we ended up completely filling up the area back by the cottonwood, behind the garage, the other side of the garage, and a couple of cords on our back deck.

Later on we built a hydraulic splitter, and the kids had happier faces:

Notice also that this is late spring and we are already starting on next winter's wood.

Smiling faces are a good thing!

We do not have a splitter but the grandsons help a lot.

When we sold the house, we left the new owners with @ 2 cords of wood (late spring/early summer), which was probably the most carry over we ever had.

They were ecstatic, and thought that it would take them forever to burn THAT MUCH WOOD!

Bwahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!

I could actually split LPP faster by hand with a sharp axe than the splitter, if it was below freezing or colder. Above freezing, and it was a tie.

I think my all time best was something like 4 cords split and stacked in @ 6 hours.

"Split it and you will burn it!" was our motto.

When it got really cold (-40*F) we would go through 3 wheelbarrows a day.

That's serious business for a 20 minute trade off. I guess if you've never done it before the experience will be a lasting one

Perhaps give Jeff_O a call for some advice... I think he's lumber jacking now

If gas was $20/gallon, I'd still be cutting firewood with the chainsaw vs a crosscut.

I spent a couple summers helping my Dad run a crosscut in Black Locust trees as a kid. We were not making firewood, only fence posts, so the cuts were at seven to nine feet.

Most of the trees were about 24 inch diameter, and it was a heck of a work out for a fifteen year old boy and his forty year old Dad to cut through each one several times.

I could have spent a few weeks bucking bales for the neighborhood farmers that summer and made enough money to purchase a Husqvarna chainsaw, and then tackled that pile of locust. We would have been time ahead, and still owned the saw when we were done.

If I never lay eyes on a crosscut again, it will be too soon.

We burn a lot of spruce. Splitting is never fun with spruce. It is the only wood I have stuck a log bomb in and had to saw it back out. I have never seen a spruce break in a wind storm. They all have tipped over roots still in tact. I like to leave then down fr two years if I can so they don't try so hard to stand back up when you are cutting them. Great burning, ugly splitting.

Yes, indeed!! Here's the only answer: http://www.stihlusa.com/chainsaws/

Since I hold a chain saw in my hands, I consider it cutting firewood by hand. If I just want exercise, I'll wander the woods with a .22.

Yeah, we used the splitter exclusively on spruce. It was set up with a 15 ton ram, and while "slow", it could split 24" dia. wet spruce!

I only split spruce by hand one time, and that was when we first moved into the house. We were desperate for wood, and all I had at the time was a cheap Homelite saw that I picked up for $100 at a hardware store (lost money on that one!). A friend told us about a blown down spruce tree in town that we could have for free, if we went and cut it up. Sure enough, it had the root ball intact. Limbed and blocked it with that little saw, loaded it up in the 1970 IHC, and took it home. That was when the work started! I didn't have a wood grenade, but it took a sledge and 3 wedges to split the first block! It took something like a day and a half to split up that one tree......

Yes, we were desperate for wood.

Didn't know you were a masochist, Rex.

I see the appeal of being prepared but man, considering how far a gallon of gas goes in a chain saw, I'd just keep some stabilized gas around instead. Which is what I do. Stabil or Seafoam and buy premium gas.

I'm strong like ox <grin> and still willing to work the ol' bod BUT hand-cutting firewood would get brutal quick. If you mess your back or shoulder up you will be of little use in said emergency anyway.

Now? No way hoser! Been doing it over 20 years.


I'd welcome a call from Rex anytime but I doubt I have much advice for him. He seems like a pretty capable dude.

My small saw is a Stihl MS290 with a 20" bar. My medium saw is a Husky 268 with a 28" bar. I won't ever get rid of either saw.

The 268 is nice because of the incredible amount of torque it has, but it has no where the fuel efficiency or the ergonomics of the Stihl.

My small saw is a 20" Husky. You can do a lot with a good 20" saw as you know. It's ideal for the understory hardwoods I cut lots of.

I've owned 3 Husky's. Love them. Sample of one, but my buddy went Stihl and has had nothing but trouble from it.

I am still looking to pick up a nice one man 36"-42" crosscut saw though. Just trying to find the right one. That, and a good double bit axe.

This all reads like work to me.

This 215 pound couch potato Faerie Dwarf will leave this work to REAL men.